Chapter 36: A New Leader

When Armitage returned from his meeting with the Supreme Leader, he had a sense of confidence about him. Snoke had of course, praised his and Ren's efforts in the attack of the Resistance cruiser, forcing the small remainder of the rebels to flee with no supplies and nobody to lead them.

Lyra had drawn herself a bath in an attempt to calm herself. Leia was injured, most likely dead. The only woman who had come close to being a decent mother figure to the young Captain, taken down by her own son. Her hate for Ren grew by the second. She clenched her fists under the bath water, imagining revenge on Ren for his crimes. As she imagined choking the life from Ren, the bathwater seemed to grow hotter, it wasn't until Hux burst into the bathroom that she was drawn from her dark thoughts.

"Lyra, are you alright?"

Her hands went to cover her exposed breasts.

"Stars am I ever to have a bath undisturbed again with you around?"

Armitage averted his eyes. "Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

Lyra stood up abruptly in the bath before snatching a towel and wrapping it around herself.

"My family and loved ones are either dead or fleeing for their lives with little chance of surviving much longer, why wouldn't I be alright?"

Armitage sighed as she knocked into him, walking past him without meeting his stare to put on some clothes.

"How long do you plan on staying angry with me? Just so I might stay out of the firing line?"

She ignored him, rooting through her clothes to find something to train in.

"Lyra please, I know you're angry with me but…"

"Did it feel good, getting your praise from Snoke? Was it everything you wanted and more? I hope it was worth it Armitage, I really hope it was. I hope all this death and killing and hate is worth whatever praise or promotion you are after."

Armitage frowned as he lowered his head. "It would feel better if I knew I had done right by you as well."

She scoffed. "Done right by me? When will you learn that while killing is on your agenda, doing right by me isn't something that is possible?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Maybe right now you cannot realise everything I do is for you, but someday you will."

Lyra pulled a white tank top down to cover her body before meeting his gaze. "Where is Ren?"

"Do not go to him Lyra. Do not antagonise him."

She shook her head. "I have to train with him. It's time for one of our sessions so I can get his visions out of head. Besides, if I don't go, Snoke will kill me and I was under the impression you didn't want that."

The General leaned against the door. "I don't want that, of course I don't. I just know your temper and given what just happened, I'm sure you want nothing more than to kill Ren where he stands."

She nodded. "Correct. But if I do that, Snoke will kill both of us. I'll play nice, as much as I can. For your sake, not for mine."

Armitage's gaze softened as he looked down at her avoiding his gaze. A long pause fell between them before he nodded slowly. "Fine, go to him, but just, stay calm."

She moved past him without looking up "yes master" she whispered sarcastically, just loud enough for him to hear.

XXX

Ren was waiting for her in one of the training rooms, looking smug from his recent victory against the Resistance. As soon as Lyra stepped inside and closed the door behind her, she was determined to fight her hardest against Snoke's apprentice.

"Come on then, let's get this over with quickly" she remarked as she faced off against him, causing him to smirk.

"You seem angry. Well, more than usual."

"Shut up. Just do what Snoke has instructed you to do."

"Seems our recent victory has brought out the worst in you."

"I said shut up."

"I suppose I understand. Watching all your loved ones blown to pieces must leave a sour taste in your mouth."

"YOUR OWN MOTHER! The one person who still had faith in the good inside you and you killed her."

Ren smirked once more. "Good, that anger, let it fuel you, let it power you, use that anger to control the force around you, use it to defend yourself from me."

Ren began his usual routine of forcing visions into her head. Only this time it wasn't Poe, or Hux being hurt, it was Leia. The vision of her floating into space, the fear she must have felt knowing she was dying, the Resistance watching on helplessly, including Poe.

Lyra tried to force it away, she tried desperately to create that mental wall but the more she pushed, the more Ren pushed back. Leia's funeral, the tears of the Resistance, crying over their fallen leader. Lyra slumped to the ground as the visions became clearer. Poe kneeling down by her funeral pyre alone, crying for his fallen idol, without Lyra there to comfort him.

Lyra grit her teeth and tried desperately to force Ren away. She saw Ren in his ship, aiming at the Resistance cruiser, looking Leia in the eyes as she seemed to plead with him with her eyes to stop. Even then, when Ren was ready to kill her, she seemed to have given him a look that screamed nothing but forgiveness for his crimes and love for her only son.

But as Ren forced the visions on her, she began to fight back, by trying to see into Ren's own mind, and that's when she saw it, the truth.

Ren, holding his mother's gaze, his fingers pausing on the buttons of his ship. Tears formed in his eyes as he stared back at his mother, until the rest of the First Order squad shot the ship. Lyra stood back up, staring into Ren's head as she held him back from her own mind before he took a step back and relinquished control over her, causing her to stop as well.

"You didn't do it. You couldn't. You couldn't kill your own mother. The others did, but you, you couldn't bring yourself to kill her."

Ren's upper lip trembled. "She isn't dead. You feel it, her presence, just like I do. She's alive, she's weak and on the edge of life but not dead. Not yet. But I promise that I will find the rest of your pathetic Resistance, and I will kill her myself. I will prove myself the leader Snoke believes me to be, I'll show you my true self. Anger and hate is the only way to true power. The sooner you realise that, the sooner you can harness your abilities. Until then you're weak, just like I was before I learnt how to use my emotions to help me. You are a slave to yours, your love for the Resistance, for the Pilot, even for your husband will be your downfall."

"And what if Snoke finds out you didn't kill the one person standing between you and complete darkness? He'll sniff out the truth and kill you just like he's killed countless other disappointments to him. You are nothing but hate and obsession, and your downfall will always be your short-sightedness. Even Vader came to regret his actions before the….."

Lyra's hands went to her throat as she felt Ren's force grip on her throat.

"You think I care about your opinion of me? You sound just like Leia. Always so sentimental beneath that fire."

Lyra managed to push him away enough to speak. "She is a good woman, too good to have a son like you."

Ren smirked as Lyra's anger rise, knowing that it was powerless to fight against it. She would learn just as he had, that the fire within was the strongest pull to the dark side, and true power. If he could get Lyra angry, Snoke would at least be pleased with his young apprentice's progress with her.

"She is weak. She's barely clinging to life. You should have seen the look in her eyes when she saw me prime the attack on her. Helplessness. She knew the Resistance was failing, she knew all that work she had put into trying to survive was useless."

He pushed against her defences harder and was met with surprise when Lyra seemed more capable of pushing him back.

"The Resistance will not fail. There will always be people there to fight against people like you and Snoke. Bullies, who expect everyone to believe in the same thing. You will fail, as dictators before you have failed."

Ren's emotions got the better of him as he gripped harder, cutting Lyra's air supply off. She began to panic as Ren retaliated.

"I will not fail as others have before me. You have already failed. Your idol is dying, your lover is so reckless he's risking his life every minute. When I take out Leia once and for all, he'll be left alone and vulnerable. When that happens, he'll come straight to me for his revenge and when he does, I'll kill him slowly, as your husband failed to do and make you watch the light leave his eyes."

With that something in Lyra switched, as she had done before, her anger grew so quickly and so fiercely the lights around them blew out. She threw Ren's force grip off her and scrambled to her feet, holding her hand out as she aimed at her enemy and flung Ren back against the ground.

Before he could realise what had just happened, she was on him, hitting him hard across his face with her bare hands. He tried to pry him off her desperately but Lyra's rage practically pinned him to the ground. Everything around Lyra other than Ren ceased to exist. She could hear no voices, see nothing but the man she so desperately despised beneath her, feel nothing but the satisfying warmth of his blood as she hit him so hard his nose bled. It wasn't until she felt two hands hook under her arms and pull her up that she could come down from her rage.

Armitage pulled her to him forcefully as he dragged her, kicking and screaming away from Ren and back to their chambers. The ringing in her ears had subsided a little but she could still hear it, she could feel her heart beating hard and practically felt her blood boil as the anger she felt for Ren still fuelled her.

Back in their shared chambers, Armitage locked the door behind him and began to check Lyra for any injuries.

"Lyra can you hear me? Are you hurt?"

She pushed him away, walking briskly to the bathroom to get a cold towel to hold against her head in an effort to calm herself down.

"Fine" she replied coldly as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Then what the blazes happened?"

"He was antagonising me, I retaliated."

Armitage looked as if he might burst with anger. "You were beating him to a bloody pulp, what the hell did he say to warrant such behaviour?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Lyra…"

"Even if you kick a loyal dog enough times they will eventually bite back, why wouldn't I? He knew I would react, he was trying to get me to react."

Armitage leaned down to wipe Ren's blood from her knuckles, causing her to wince in pain. "I've no doubt he wanted you to react but beating him with your own hands was probably not what he envisioned."

"It doesn't matter now anyway, what's done is done."

The General sighed. "Lyra, it does matter. Ren could kill you for this, in-fact I may have to see him right away to do some damage control. What the hell were you thinking? I told you not to anger him."

Lyra couldn't help it, tears formed in her eyes. "He was insulting Leia, he tried to kill her and then he makes matters worse by insulting a woman who could be dying as we speak. She's like a mother to me Armitage, what was I meant to do?"

Her tears fell as she spoke and Armitage finished wiping the blood from her hands before he began to wipe her tears away.

"I'm sorry my darling. I'm sorry for Leia, I'm sorry you're hurting."

Lyra leaned forward and rested her head on Armitage's shoulder as she cried. He stroked her hair, reassuring her that he was there for her as he did so. For a moment he contemplated letting her call through to the Resistance to find out Leia's state, but it was pointless. Leia and his wife's friends would die sooner or later, letting her keep contact with them was prolonging a dying hope.

He held her close as she cried against him, trying to muffle her cries against his neck. He hated this. Watching her in pain. Allowing her to be this miserable without her new band of friends.

"I... let's leave Ren to lick his wounds today, tomorrow I'll talk to him, see that he doesn't strike back too hard."

"He talked about Leia dying Tij, about how she is weak for believing in him returning to the light even now. He mentioned the fear she felt before his men attacked."

Lyra pulled her head up away him, wiping away the remainder of her tears.

"You do realise he knows exactly what buttons to press in order to rile you up?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes I'm acutely aware of that fact Armitage but I'm only human. I've seen you snap at him for saying less hurtful things about me."

"A verbal scolding is slightly different from beating him to a bloody pulp."

Lyra frowned. "Am I to receive punishment from you as well now?"

The General smirked. "Not at all. I had just always believed I would have been the one in your place."

She wiped her face again. "You aren't angry with me?"

The red haired man shrugged. "I'm angry you put yourself in such a dangerous position, I'm fearful for your life, but it's only natural to retaliate after someone we hate hurts us further. Ever since Ren started torturing you he's practically been asking for it."

Lyra managed a small smile. "You like that I hurt him."

Armitage met her smile. "Do I like that my wife is the one responsible for putting an emotion on the face of my most hated co-worker that isn't smugness? Yes. Yes there's a great sense of pleasure I feel from that."

He stroked her cheek softly as he regarded her tear stained face. "Despite your sadness, your strength seems to grow every day."

She frowned. "Ren is using my emotions against me. I know he is. What if he's making me like him? Snoke thinks he can harness my abilities and turn me into another apprentice. What if Ren believes I can be to him what he is to Snoke? He made me so angry Armitage. I've never felt that angry before, what if he's using it against me?"

Armitage continued to stroke her cheek. "You are nothing like him my darling and you know it. Why else would you hate him so?"

"What if I hate him because I see the things I hate about myself in him?"

"You stand against everything he does. You defend your loved ones as he offers them up to Snoke on a platter. You see the good in everyone when he only sees the worst, creates it in many cases."

Lyra placed a hand on his as she met his gaze. "I'm going to die here Armitage. I can feel it, I'll die here with the First Order or live to see myself turn into everything I hate."

He shook his head. "I won't allow either of those things to come to pass. Listen, you need rest, Ren's abuse on your mind is enough to wear anyone out. I'll talk to Ren tomorrow when he's had some time to calm down. I'm sure I can calm him down."

"How?"

"He and Snoke need my armies. My men have impeccable training, whether the Order like to admit it or not. They need me, and to have me, they need to keep you alive."

Lyra stared down at the ground sadly. "I suppose that's all I'm doing nowadays. Surviving. Not living much of a life, just, staying alive."

Armitage lifted her head as he raised his own up to kiss her forehead gently. "Just until the end of this war my darling. After that we can have our lives back as they were. We can eat dinner staring out at the lake again and take our hikes in the mountains of Naboo. I can make sure you wake up to sunlight again, and fresh flowers with a note to say how much I love you. You'll be able to go wherever you want, and I can watch you smile and laugh again."

Feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders and the guilt for not being able to help Leia and the Resistance, Lyra began to cry, allowing herself to fall forward into her husband's arms. The General scooped her up as she buried her head against his neck to hide her tears.

Instead of putting her in bed, he sat on the large couch, pulling her close to him as she rested her back against the arm of the couch. His arms wrapped around her and he felt as her own fingers gripped his clothes as she continued to cry.

Armitage whispered soothing words to her as he tried to calm her, reaching up to play with her hair gently, an action that had always relaxed her in the past.

After a long while, she fell asleep against him, emotionally exhausted from the events of the day. The General stayed there with her, watching his wife sleep. It seemed to be the only time she seemed at ease nowadays. He hated to admit she was falling further into despair with every day that passed, he wondered if anything he did would ever ease her mind and bring her happiness the way that damned Pilot seemed to.

And Ren. Ren had made everything worse, making her already vulnerable state even more vulnerable by breaking down her mental walls, making her doubt herself. Ren deserved what he got. He deserved to be bitten back after pushing Lyra so far. He thought of the Pilot again briefly. He would want Ren dead as much as Hux did if he learnt of what Snoke's apprentice had done to the woman he believed to be his own.

Hux was drawn from his own thoughts momentarily as Lyra squirmed in her sleep, no doubt a result of Ren's tormenting of her. Hux brushed the hair from her face, stroking her face gently until she settled into an uneasy sleep once more.

The contours of her face had changed so much since she had been brought back to him. When she had returned, she was fuller, both in face and body, healthier. Already she had lost the weight she had put on. But it was more than that. The stress of everything had changed her. She looked gaunt, and tired and the glimmer on her eyes had long left her, even her smile wasn't the same on good moments. It was as if it no longer belonged on her face, as if it was a challenge for her to seem happy. She looked heavy, as if the weight of the galaxy was on her and she no longer had the strength to hold it up.

"My poor love, if there was a way I could make all this pain go away I would do it. I would see you happy again, that's all I've ever wanted."

Lyra's face seemed to settle at the comforting words of her husband. Her grip on his clothes lessened and her breathing became deeper, as if she was finally falling into a deep sleep.

When Armitage was sure she was asleep, he put her into bed, tucking her in gently before sitting at his desk to finish off some paperwork, but more importantly, to think more on how he was going to reason with Ren enough to get him to spare his wife's life. Though with her current state, he was almost certain she wouldn't thank him for such a thing.

Armitage worked into the early hours of the morning, until his eyes could no longer stay open and then he dragged himself to bed, watching Lyra as she slept on the other side of it before falling into a disjointed slumber himself.

XXX

The next morning, Hux rose before his wife. He didn't wake her as he dressed, knowing she needed all the sleep she could muster. He also didn't want to worry her by letting her know he was off to address Ren.

Taking one last look at her, he left their chambers quietly, before making his way to the bridge. When he could not find Ren there, he assumed his next point of call would be Snoke's throne room back on the Supremacy. Snoke had made sure his ship was always close to the Finalizer of late, most likely to intimate Hux, making sure he knew his master was always there, always watching.

Hux's hands shook slightly as he boarded the Supremacy and made his way up to the throne room. He feared his wife had gone one step too far this time and worried that no amount of compliance or apologies would forgive her.

As the doors to the throne room opened, Hux's jaw dropped at the sight. Snoke's guards lay disembodied on the ground, every single one of them dead. Electrical shortages from damages sparked everywhere, even small fires had started all around the large chamber. On the throne, sat half of Snoke's body, the other half had slumped to the ground, he had been completely cut in two. The Supreme Leader was dead.

And Ren. Ren lay in the middle of the room, seemingly unconscious, or better still, dead too. As the General approached the unmoving body, he noticed the commander's shallow breathing. Taking in a sharp sigh of disappointment, his hand went to his blaster. This was it, his chance to kill Ren. If he killed him, he could no longer harm Lyra. And Hux would be the next in command, he would be Supreme Leader. His heart skipped a beat at the mere thought.

However, his excitement was short-lived. Ren stirred, causing Hux to take his hand away from his blaster. As Ren rose, Hux frowned at him.

"What happened?"

"The girl, the desert rat. While you were busy with your insolent wife, she came on-board the ship, willingly. She killed Snoke and the guards, and knocked me unconscious before escaping."

The General stared at him in disbelief.

"Gather your best men, we'll find the Resistance now and the girl and finish this."

Finally the General had an ounce of power. "Finish this? Who do you think you're talking to? You presume to command my armies? The Supreme Leader is dead….."

Hux felt an intense tightening around his throat, chocking him.

"The Supreme Leader is dead…." Ren spat at him.

Hux faltered under the pain. "Long live, the Supreme Leader."

Ren released his hold on Hux. As the General rubbed his throat he looked up at Ren. "Supreme Leader, I will yield my armies to you if you… if you spare my wife for her outburst yesterday. She isn't feeling herself lately, she's tired…."

"I have more important enemies to worry about right now besides your wife. I haven't forgotten her attempt at ending me, though a feeble attempt it may have been. However now, we work together to end the Resistance. It's for both our benefit after all."

Hux nodded, knowing that without the Resistance in the way, he could move on with Lyra, once and for all.